I think I like the pardalote and robin the most also. Perhaps it creates a warmth?

Not really sure why they look "smooth", but I can see what you are saying (Tess32). But I certainly didnt "blur" them and only a couple I ran through a noise reducer.

Interesting you say you feel like youre secretly looking in on the bird. Half the time I am in "stealth" mode to catch them! So I guess I really am watching and photographing them secretly sometimes. Have to hide for quite a few minutes sometimes, really tests ones patience.

You can view the whole series of them on my site now
(well the ones I have done to date anyway!)

http://www.pbase.com/chezzyr/tinted_birds&page=all

Would love to know which species (or specific images) people like the most as I will be updating my site and rotating some images. Thanks for looking!

Hi Cheryl,

I just had a chance to look at your gallery. You have some magnificent work in there. I am really impressed that you did all of this hand painting.

There are some shots that really stood out for me, not just because of the composition, but because you can tell that it took a lot of work to hand tint the shots. The shots I like the most are normally the ones where you have painted the bird and some of the foreground scenery. I also like the way you leave the background clear, really forcing your eyes to the bird and immediate surroundings. This can be seen on the photos of the eastern spinebill, new holland honeyeater and pardalote.

Again, thanks for sharing.

Cheers!
James

Thanks James!

I think I prefer the term tinted to painted because in this case I havent used any paint ;-)

Some images I choose just to emphasize a part of the bird only, and in others I like to include some of the the other colors like the flowers in the New Holland Honeyeater shot. The Spinebill shot to me has a real old fashioned look to it, like something I would find in a grandmother's house.

In a couple of the images I went back and removed a distracting branch or foliage. Normally I post wildlife shots with not much post processing at all! In this case I was doing something arty anyway so I have forgiven myself ;-)

Does anyone have a link to the type of "hand tinting" someone was referring to earlier (ie desaturating and then using history brush etc). I would like to see the difference in the "final result" of the two differing techniques!